Thirsts
by Sondra Huxtable
Summary: Isobello has no idea what is waiting for him in Forks. Edward has no idea what is on the way. Will Isobello understand his thirst? Will Edward understand his, and will he discover a new thirst?  FYI, Bella's a boy in THIS universe.
1. Chapter 1

Forks was where I was headed, in about half an hour. I turned on my iPhone's Bluetooth, opened up my Macbook and ran a Google search for Forks.

"Forks is a city in Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 3,120 at the 2000 census. It is named after the forks in the nearby Quillayute, Bogachiel, Calawah, and Sol Duc rivers.

For many years, the city's economy was fueled by the local timber industry. With recent declines in the industry, however, Forks has had to rely on the nearby Clallam Bay Correctional Center and Olympic Corrections Center as a source of jobs. Forks is a popular destination for sport fishers who fish for salmon and rainbow trout in nearby rivers."

This all meant nothing to me. Reading this excerpt from Wikipedia's page on Forks made me realize that I was inordinately excited about my relocation to this inconsequential town.

All I could remember from my childhood was that it rained. A lot. And it was a sleepy little town, a town full of sleepers.

This was exciting. Sleepers could never see what was right in front of them. I hoped their lack of sight would hide my strange emotions that I didn't even understand.

What was most exciting was the fresh start this small town provided for me. No one knew my story. No one had any inclination that I was warring against what might just be my true nature.

Phoenix had held many hellish nightmares that were actually a part of my reality. I can clearly see the last day that I was present at Saint Mary's, and hell it was. I had been caught doing something I had done every day, something that wasn't against the law, but something that was looked down upon as if it were illegal.

There was a boy that I had been interested in. James, they called him. I saw him every day, and I never could help sneaking a peek. As long as I was always sneaky and stealthy. And I was. Except in one instance.

Their looks of disgust were palpable. I could feel the disgust, anger and hatred radiating off of all of the boys in the locker room, but James' was almost painful. They attacked, and I felt physical pain then. I was knocked out after a kick to my gut hit me so hard that my head collided with a locker. I ended up in the nurse's office somehow. They called my mother, and I told her everything. I detailed my confusion and my anger against the unknown. I told her it was not a part of my nature, that I wouldn't accept it. I could see the war between her eyes. She wanted to go with her new husband, to travel with him as he played baseball, but she knew she needed to stay with me. I made the decision for her. I told her that I was going to Forks. That I needed a fresh start, that it would be good for me. She didn't believe it, I could see that, but her desire won her over, and she accepted it. I don't fault her for this. I needed Forks just like she needed Phil.

"Flight 110 to Port Angeles, now boarding at gate A7."

Here goes.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This is my second attempt at Chapter 1. The first one started with Isobello waking up and every minute detail from there. I scrapped that, because hell, it would read just like Twilight since I'm trying to stay true to the story, and if you guys wanted to reread Twilight, well, you'd probably pick up the book right? Anyway, I'm hoping this is better. If it's not, umm, blame the late hour and the homework I'm supposed to be doing. It must be distracting me. Anyway, here we go.**

…

I got out of my third hour study hall and headed to the lunchroom early. It was basically empty, but I was completely starving, so I scurried to get behind all of two people that were in line for lunch. I picked up packaged sandwich, an apple, and a bottle of water. I quickly paid and sat down at an empty table. I dug into my sandwich, and I didn't look up from my tray for some time, because it seemed the lunchroom had suddenly been filled. I had been lost in thought about the car Charlie had given me before school, saving me from riding my bike in the rain, and I had also been thinking about how my first three classes had gone. English was a breeze, their curriculum unfortunately seemed to follow my English 10 honors class from the previous year. I enjoyed English and wanted a real challenge. Math was the same everywhere. It seemed that suddenly many eyes were on me, and I tried to ignore them.

I noticed a table of kids acting strangely. I saw the brunette girl and her friend who had been staring at me in English sitting at a table with a few other girls I hadn't seen before and a few guys as well. They appeared to be arguing, and they were all casting glances at me.

Huh.

I looked away swiftly after that and found another group of teenagers staring at me, although this group differed greatly from the previous one.

Whoa. I felt a rough tap on my shoulder, and turned towards it. The brunette from English was looking at me expectantly, but I hadn't even realized she's said a word.

"Could you… Repeat that?" I murmured.

She huffed. "I said, hey, we have English together right? Wanna come sit with me and my friends?"

I resisted the urge to scrunch up my face and say no. I smiled, and her eyes went a bit wide and her mouth popped open by the tiniest fraction. She must be a space cadet.

I grabbed my tray and stood up, and she seemed to shake her head slightly. She turned on her heel and led me to their table, where she pulled up a chair for me, just an inch from hers. I had to laugh at that. It wasn't _that _crowded. I sat down, and was just lifting my sandwich back up to my mouth when I realized all eyes were on me, and everything was quiet. I figured I'd better nip the awkwardness in the bud right away.

"So…" I said. So much for that. I was so awkward.

"Umm, so you're Isobello, right? Do you go by that? Is that, like, Italian?" The blonde from English piped up, entirely too quickly. I barely understood it all.

"Yeah, that's me. And yeah, I go by that, Bello sounds too much like Bella," I laughed, for effect. "And yeah, it's Italian. It's the masculine from of Isabella."

"Oh," The blonde breathed. A tanner, darker haired brunette spoke up then.

"So I'm guessing _someone,_" she sent a tiny glare towards the other brunette, "Should introduce everyone. I'm Angela. This is Jess, Lauren, Mike, and Ty. And this is Ben, and Eric." The last two were engrossed in what seemed to be a small argument, completely oblivious to everyone else. Suddenly, the one Angela said was Eric threw back his chair and stormed away. "Don't mind him. He's just on his man-period." Everyone laughed along with Angela. That comment cut a little close to home for me, but I chose to ignore it, not wanting to appear different from the group.

"So… What brings you to Forks, Bello?" The one called Jessica, from English class, raised her eyebrows. I could just see the wheels turning in her head. I know she wanted juicy gossip.

"Nothing really, I just thought I'd spend some time with my dad." I admitted sheepishly. It was the only truth I could tell.

"Oh, that's nice." Jessica looked like she was fighting a yawn.

I felt eyes on me, and looking to my left, I found them. There were five pairs of eyes on me. The very kids that were staring at me earlier. Although, now that I was closer, they all looked like adults. Gorgeous adults. They could definitely all have been actors, maybe they were. Maybe they had some reality show where they show up at a random high school and chronicle their time there.

The looks on their faces ranged from angry, to quizzical, to amused, to excited, to… The boy sitting away from the others had a face that seemed to display multiple emotions. On one hand, he looked confused. On the other, he looked a bit upset. But he also looked bored, and he definitely looked a bit put out or frustrated. And he was suddenly staring right into my eyes.

_Fuck, _I cursed inwardly as I broke my gaze, looking down. Of course. Of course of course of course. Of fucking course there would be a gorgeous guy at this school that I was instantly attracted to. How does this happen in the middle of bum fucked Egypt? In a school of about, let's see… Twenty kids, tops. This was ridiculous. I couldn't let myself think about it. That was just it. I couldn't think about his soft looking bronze hair that I wanted to run my fingers through. I couldn't think about the _very _clearly defined biceps and triceps that were completely on display. I couldn't think about those delicious looking lips of his either. Lips that looked like they were saying "bite me… please?" Lips that were pleading with me to… Fuck! Not good, not good. Distraction time.

I looked back at the table, and everyone's eyes were on me. Again. I had something to say, though, so this was good.

"So, who are _they_?"

Nobody even pretended that they didn't know what I was talking about.

"The Cullens," Angela murmured, thoughtfully chewing on a celery stick.

"And the Hales," Jessica piped up, once again.

"The blondes are the Hales," Lauren rushed to add.

"And the rest are the Cullens." Jessica nodded.

"But they're like," Jess began.

"Together. Like, together together." Lauren finished, rolling her eyes and basically sticking her nose in the air.

"I mean, none of them are actually related, but still, it's totally weird, right?" Jess added, faking a shudder. Did she want me to actually answer that?

"Yeah. It's weird. The blonde girl, that's Rosalie. She's with the big guy with the curly hair, he's Emmett." Lauren started up again, saving me from having to answer Jessica.

"And the short girl with the crazy hair, that's Alice. She's with the blond guy, he's Jasper." Jessica relayed.

"And the last one's Edward. Single, and not looking." Angela murmured, sighing, rather audibly. I swore I saw Edward chuckle at that. But there wasn't really any way he could've heard it.

Tyler and Mike spoke then, lamenting on the ineligibility of Rosalie and Alice. I didn't really say anything, just listened to them talk about the Cullens for the entire lunch. I wondered if that was what they did every day.

Soon enough it was time to head to Biology, which I was not looking forward to. I wanted Physics. It was full.

I got lost again, which I didn't even understand, because the school was so damned small. I found myself alone in the hall with Angela. I smiled weakly at her, and she just smirked. She started to approach me, but something was off about her steps and the way she was looking at me. Her eyes were narrowed, and her posture was erect. She looked like she was about to pounce or something. She didn't pounce, but she came closer, and closer… Until I feared for my safety. She got so close that our lips were almost touching, closed her eyes, and puckered her lips… Then she took a step back and started guffawing in the most unladylike manner. It was extremely entertaining.

"You should have seen the look your face," she roared. "I knew that would hella creep you out!" She had tears in her eyes now. She sobered up a bit, and eyed me speculatively. She got really serious then. "Your mistake wasn't in that you expressed interest in Edward. Your mistake was that you didn't express any interest in the girls. It goes both ways, you know?" I stared at her, slackjawed. What was she trying to say?

"What are you trying to say?" I asked suspiciously.

"You know what I'm trying to say, and by the looks of it, you don't want me to say it. It's cool though. I'm just saying, I know. And I get it." Angela's voice started out harsh, but it got much softer in the end.

"Uh, well, thanks, but I uh, gotta get to class now." Angela just laughed at me, dragged me towards some room, which I sincerely hoped was the Biology room.

She reached for the door, but paused. "Don't stare at him so much. It's kinda obvious." She laughed, yanked open the door, and thrust me in. "Hey Banner, look who I found. Someone got lost." She sniggered, and I shot her a dirty look.

He handed me a book, and told me to go ahead and sit by Edward. I could practically feel Angela's smile behind me, and with my mortification on my mind, I tripped on the way to my new seat. A few people laughed. I made my way to Edward, err, to my new seat. He looked at me in the oddest way. First, it look like it physically hurt him to be near me. Second, he looked morbidly curious. He stared me right in the eye for a moment, and I looked down at his chest. Guh. But wait, his chest was… Not moving? The hell? Maybe he just took really tiny breaths. That's it. Really tiny breaths.

Between the muscles I could clearly see, and his coal black eyes, I was mesmerized. I looked back up at him, and he looked me right in the eye. Then he spoke.

"Hi, I'm Edward, Edward Cullen? I suppose we're to be lab partners this year."

"I suppose so." I said wryly. Seriously, who talked like that? Okay, it was hot, yeah, but really, _who talks like that? _

"Something funny?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Ooh. Yummy eyebrow. Oh wow. Now my inner monologue can't even form complete sentences. Or sentences that contain any merit whatsoever. Great.

"Uhh… Just your dialect, and your general form of speech." I quipped. He raised both eyebrows, then.

"And why is that?" He smirked, then, but he still looked a little confused, and curious.

"Well, you sound like you're from New York, and Chicago, and LA. So what's up with that? And '_you suppose we're to be lab partners?_' You sound a bit like Mr. Darcy, to be honest."

His eyebrows bunched up toward the center of his forehead then, and it was so cute I had to look away. "_Darcy?" _He whispered indignantly.

"Yep, Darcy." I mocked.

"I'll have you know I'm much more of a gentleman than Darcy ever was." He hissed, his tone still indignant.

"All right, then. No one said you weren't." I was feeling sheepish, and a little taken aback by his harshness. His eyes widened at my tone, I suppose, and he looked a bit sad. But class was starting, so I didn't really have much time to think about it. Mr. Banner told us to take out our books and turn to page 153, so I did. I was inspired by a dangerous idea, but I was confident in it's security.

I leaned down to get a piece of gum from my bag on the floor. While I was down there, I absently let my foot push my chair closer to Edward's. I straightened up and found myself much closer to him than I had been before. I popped the gum in my mouth.

Then I pulled my legs into my chair, and leaned my book up against them. I used my right hand to turn each page as I read, each time almost grazing Edwards delicious looking bicep that was basically on display on the edge of the table. I would just brush up against it slightly to determine if it looked as good as it felt. I decided on the next turn of the page, I would. Touch. It.

Sure enough, I did, success. But the problem was, his biceps didn't feel as good as they looked. They felt better. Rock hard, hardest muscles I'd ever felt. Well, I hadn't really felt any besides his. But hey.

Unfortunately, I hadn't removed my hand from his arm yet. He reached up and settled his fingers around my wrist. He held them like that for the tiniest moment, then removed my hand from his arm, and set it on the table. But he stroked my fingers delicately. It could only have been described as a caress.

What. The. Fuck.

That so didn't go as planned. But at least I got to touch the bicep. I wonder if I should try for the tricep or if I'm pushing my luck.

Why did he touch me so sweetly when he put my hand on the table? Wouldn't most guys have been like, "What the FUCK?" And then immediately called me out on being gay? That was my experience in Phoenix. Maybe people from Forks were just different. Or maybe he was…

No. I couldn't think it. It was a definite improbability. He couldn't be gay. That would just be too perfect. And even if he were, there wasn't a damned thing I could do about it. This was my break. My new chance. My turning point. I couldn't ruin that for myself, or for Charlie. What would the town do if they found out he had a gay son? I realized that class was over, and Edward was just staring at me, with one eyebrow raised. Again with the eyebrow. I guess I was pretty out of it, I had just been staring into space at my book, lost in thought.

"Come with me. Let's talk." That was all Edward said. His tone didn't seem to leave room for questioning. I followed after him, and he led me out of the school.

**A/N: Ooh, what could Edward possibly want? And why the hell didn't he flip shit when he smelled Isobello's scent? This is fun. Super fun. But I'm biting my (extremely fake) nails here, feeling like this is turning into those fics that I steer clear from, those fics with lame plots and boring storytelling. Bah. I really hope people actually read this and like this. **


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